How to Be Strong in the Lord

By John Piper

1. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).

Is it not good to belong to a God that makes gladness the pathway to power? Satan is a very gloomy god. But Jesus said, “Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for, behold, your reward is great in heaven” (Luke 6:23). Satan cannot abide the songs of the saints. (Knowing this he fabricates “musical” substitutes which are not the heart-songs of happy people, but the grunts and gasps and screams of people without peace.) I have seen Satan driven out with the songs of hope-filled Christians. And I know that in my own life finding the pace to finish the race means recovering the joy of the Lord again and again. Joy is a great power.

2. “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2).

Some joy comes from what we have now—forgiveness of sin, fellowship with God, purposeful lives, worship, fellowship, sunrise, sunset, precious friends and family. But the simple and painful fact is “our outer nature is wasting away” (2 Corinthians 4:16); we are “afflicted in every way… perplexed… persecuted… struck down” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9); and we who have the Spirit “groan inwardly as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). Therefore if we’re going to have an unwavering joy in this life, it will have to be “in hope.” “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience”—and with joy (Romans 8:24f). Therefore “Rejoice in hope!” (Romans 12:12).

3. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be crying any more, for the former things have passed away…The city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” (Revelation 21:4,23).

This is our hope. The glory of God will one day stand forth in a new creation and wipe away all evil and all pain and all sorrow and all fear and all guilt. All obedience and faithfulness will be vindicated and rewarded. All self-denial and suffering in faith will be recompensed 100-fold. “He who did not spare his only Son, but gave him up for us all, will freely give us all things with him” (Romans 8:32) All that God owns will be the inheritance of his children for their everlasting enjoyment.

4. “I do not cease [to pray] for the eyes of your hearts to be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of your calling and what is the wealth of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:16-18).

The great challenge for us now is to know the glory of our hope. To see it with the eyes of the heart and not just think about it with the mind. This is the great spiritual battle. And this is fought with the television off, on our knees in the Word. God forbid that “seeing we would not see and hearing we would not hear.” Let us pray with all our heart that the God who said, “Let there be light,” will shine in our heart “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Overcome Evil With Good

By Joyce Meyer


Do let yourself by overcome by evil, but overcome (master) evil with good.
-  Romans 12:21


     We overcome evil with good.  I believe this truth is one of the most powerful weapons we possess, and the best-kept secret.  God wants everyone to know it, but Satan keeps us so entrenched in our problems and person pain that few of us ever understand they dynamics of it.  We can get Satan back for the painful things he has brought into our lives by being good to others.  We overcome him (evil) by being good to other people.  Actually, it is God who overcomes Satan as we allow Him to work His good through us.  Satan wants to use our pain to destroy us, but we destroy his plan by doing the opposite of what he expects.
     Being good to someone else not only defeats Satan, it also releases joy in our own lives.  Historically, people who have been hurt by someone frequently experience depression.  I believe this is partially due to the fact that their attention is on their own pain instead of on what they can do to relieve someone else's pain.  God has not called us to "in-reach"; He has called us to "out-reach."  When we reach out to others, God reaches into our souls and heals us.  He is the only One who can heal the broken hearted and make the wounded better than new.

A Time of Temptation

by F.B. Meyer

Lamentations 3:19-26

You will be tempted to the end of your life, and the nearer you live to Christ the more you will be tempted... The [one] who sees the heavenly vision is the [one] whom the devil will tempt to the uttermost. God will permit it because temptation does for us what the storms do for the oaks - it roots us - and what the fire does for the painting on porcelain - it makes us permanent. You never know that you have a grip on Christ, or that he has a grip on you so well as when the devil is using all his force to attract you from him; then you feel the pull of Christ's right hand.
As long as the soldier slinks outside the battle, he faces little danger, but let him plunge in and follow the captain and he will soon have the bullets flying about him. Some of us have had a good time because there was no use in the devil wasting powder and shot upon us; we haven't been doing him any harm. But once we begin to wake up and set to work for God, the devil will set a thousand evils to worrying us...
The nearer you get to Christ the more you will have to do with temptation. The closer you get into the heart of the fight the more the devil will torment you... But the virulence of the temptation means not that you are declining into sin, but that you are advancing in holiness; that the devil is afraid of you and hopes only to wound Christ by hurting you.

The CNN Freedom Project

Praise the Lord for CNN facing modern-day slavery head on!

This is a huge step towards re-abolishing slavery.

I am currently reading a book called "Sugar - A Bittersweet History" by Elizabeth Abbott. This book is a detailed description of how sugar grew popular in the world and the innocent people who were forced to become slaves because of it. It made me think of the movie "Amazing Grace."

This is a picture of slaves on an Australian plantation in 1890.







In 1807 the "Abolition of the Slave Trade Act" was passed. However, this did not stop British captains from continuing the trade. Because of this the Anti-Slavery Society was formed in 1823. William Wilberforce was one of the members of the society. This group of people demanded that slavery be made illegal. And the "Slavery Abolition Act," which gave freedom to all slaves in the British Empire, was passed in 1833.

The United States abolished slavery in 1865 with the 13th Amendment.

Even with these laws, slavery is more rampant today than it has ever been in the past.

CNN has committed to uncovering modern-day slavery.

click on any of these links to read more about the CNN Freedom Project & to stay updated with the news that they are finding:

http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/07/the-cnn-freedom-project/

an article by Tony Maddox: http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/04/modern-day-slavery-a-problem-that-cant-be-ignored/?on.cnn=2

the Freedom Project blog: http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/